Bronco athletes score big in classroom and on the field, says NCAA

KALAMAZOO—Bronco athletes are pushing the bar higher off the playing field and in the classroom, recent awards from the NCAA and high marks show.

Women's tennis leads a group of three Western Michigan University teams to earn APR Awards from the NCAA, honoring them as being in the top 10 percent in the nation according to the Academic Progress Rate. Men's tennis and women's soccer joined women's tennis as teams to earn the award based on their most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate. The awards are given each year to teams with APRs in the top 10 percent.

For the Bronco women's tennis program, this is the second-straight year to land in the top 10 percent and the fourth time since the APR began in 2004-05. This is the first such acknowledgement for the men's tennis and women's soccer programs.

At the same time, WMU athletes had a collective GPA of more than 3.00 for the 14th consecutive semester dating back to fall 2006, with the fourth highest GPA of 3.11 on record during the past semester.

The top five teams all boasted team GPAs of 3.5 or better and were led by women's gymnastics, which earned a 3.86, the highest GPA during a given semester on record. Eight team members earned a 4.00 this spring while capturing a share of the 2013 Mid-American Conference title.

The WMU men's soccer team led all men's programs, boasting a 3.53 team GPA, with six of its members earning a 4.00 and 21 earning a 3.00 GPA or better this spring.

Top five

The top five team GPAs for spring 2013 were:

• Women's gymnastics—3.86

• Women's tennis—3.65

• Women's soccer—3.59

• Cross country—3.56

• Men's soccer—3.53

In all, 224 WMU student athletes earned a GPA of 3.00 or higher in the spring 2013 semester. In addition, 141 earned GPAs of 3.50 or better, while 88 had a 3.75 or better GPA and 39 achieved perfect 4.00 GPAs.

Bronco athletes also maintained high cumulative GPAs. A total of 238 had cumulative GPAs of 3.00 or better, while 118 held cumulative GPAs of 3.50 or better, 59 had a 3.75 or better and an elite group of nine student athletes had a cumulative GPA of 4.00.